1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and method for recording a broadcast program content on a recording medium such as an optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a conventional program contents recording/playback apparatus for recording and playing TV programs, which has a recording time period extending function for unexpected extension of a program. This extending function is such that when the available area of a recording medium runs short, already recorded program contents are once read out, compressed and rerecorded, thereby creating available area to record more program contents. The prior art program contents recording/playback apparatus having the recording time period extending function has been explained in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-123365.
The prior art apparatus is capable of recording and playing at N-times speed (N≧2) and changing a record compressing rate. The apparatus can expand a recordable area by playing and compressing/rerecording the already recorded program contents, simultaneously with recording more program contents in the expanded area. With this apparatus, even if the available area of a recording medium is used up and further recording becomes impossible, an available area can be automatically created and more program contents can be recorded in the expanded available area.
However, the above prior art apparatus creates available area not by recompressing program contents during recording, but recompressing other recorded program contents. Thus, if the user refuses recompression of other recorded program contents (to avoid degradation of the picture quality by the recompression), the recording time period cannot be extended. Further, if the broadcasting time period of a program is extended during recording, it is impossible to extend the recording time period by an even recording rate in the same program. Since the apparatus is not linked to the program extension information, it is impossible to recompress/rerecord the already recorded program contents and record new program contents at an optimum recording rate.